After throwing a pick on his first possession as a starter, Eagles quarterback Nick Foles settled in and had some fun. And apparently, his teammates were having fun as well.
“I’m having a blast,” Foles said, via Les Bowen of the Phildelphia Daily News. “There’s nothing like it, when you go out there and you’re on the field with your guys that you worked with all week, it’s special. In preseason, I’m learning a lot, developing relationships with all the guys.
“That’s the key, when you’re playing, not only are you a team, you’re sort of like a family.”
Foles started in the place of the injured Michael Vick, and had a fairly exceptional evening.
He left at halftime with a 17-3 lead, on 12-of-19 passing for 146 yards, with two touchdowns and one interception, good for a 99.9 rating. The numbers were almost better, as what was initially ruled a Damaris Johnson touchdown was overturned.
“He managed the game well,” Eagles coach Andy Reid said of Foles. “He made a couple of nice throws. There were a couple I think he’d like to have back. Those were young guy mistakes. He worked through it, he came back and he kept firing.
“You’re looking at that as a coach – does he get gun shy, or does he continue to fire? He did it. He stayed aggressive, did a pretty nice job.”
In three games, the third-rounder is 36-of-57 passing (63.2 percent) for 507 yards, six touchdowns and two interceptions, and a 112.2 passer rating. But perhaps as importantly, he’s making fans in the locker room with an aggressive style.
“He’s just one of those guys who’s got that gunslinger mentality; if he sees somebody going deep, he’ll let it go, and he’s got the confidence in himself to make every throw on the field, so that’s always fun,” left tackle King Dunlap said.
With every passing week, Foles is becoming more and more popular in Philadelphia. Bowen even joked about his “relaxing pregame stroll across the surface of Lake Erie.”
In the short term, that will mean leap-frogging Mike Kafka and Trent Edwards for a backup job. But it could also make for an interesting decision on Vick, and whether the Eagles want to pay him $16.5 million next year.
Foles may not be ready for a full-time starting job, but the early signs are positive.